Justice - Sure thing! As with the others, you'll be in with the next surviving migrant wave.
RogueArchivist - What do you mean?
22nd Slate 678 - MorningThe axe bit once again into the wooden training dummy. With a grunt Brosso 'the Magnificent' pulled it out.
He had been training like this since the 15th, so a week now. It was very tiring work for a Dwarf used to delegating such physical tasks to other people, but before the cause for the survival of Dwarven culture had taken root, he had had to dig much of his circus alone, and that had certainly strengthened him.
And anyway, he had a cause.
'I promised him that I will train hard and one day be the best axedwarf ever!' those words written down in a diary long before all the terror and danger had come to the world still stung his eyes with the threat of tears. He swung the axe into the wood again, and with a satisfying sound it sliced into the wood, embedding itself. With a heave he pulled it out once more. There was a short, sharp rap on the door.
Ah, that had to be her.
"Enter." he said, putting down his axe, and going to sit behind his desk, straightening out his outfit and preparing a cigar. The stone door was hauled open (non-Dwarves always seemed shocked to learn that most doors in Dwarven fortresses were stone) and in entered Imiwa. The tall, graceful Elf looked down her nose at the Dwarf,
"Your little urchin messenger told me you wanted to talk, Brosso?" she said shortly, her tone cold. Imiwa and her supporters were to the Elves what Brosso and the Alliance for Dwarven Survival were to the Dwarves; traditionalists through and through unwilling to accommodate the new times by betraying the old. Some might even have called them reactionaries.
"Imiwa." Brosso said as warmly as he could muster. The cynical old Dwarven saying 'friends are enemies pretending to like each other' held true here, Brosso had to be as accommodating as possible. "Please, do take a seat, we have...much to discuss."
The Elf sat on the proffered seat opposite Brosso.
"Cigar? Drink?"
"What is this about Brosso? You know full well I have better things to do than talk to one who supports killing the spirits." Imiwa demanded, ignoring the offered refreshments.
"Ah yes, the trees." the Dwarf said. This would be what made or broke the entire conversation. "I will get to that in due course, but first I would like to discuss recent events." the circus-director leant forwards, elbows on the schist table.
"Imiwa, I'm sure that you as much as I have been shocked, horrified and outraged by the recent thefts."
"These thefts do not concern me or mine. If someone wants to steal your precious metal bars, then let them."
"Those thefts are just the beginning. What will you do when they come for you and yours?" Brosso puffed on his cigar, taking care - for once - not to blow the smoke into the Elf's face. "Imiwa, it was Goblins who conducted that theft."
"And you have proof of this?" Imiwa sneered, though she was evidently listening slightly more intently now. Goblins were the enemies of all races - save perhaps the Kobolds or Bogeymen. While Elves and Dwarves had their - sometimes bloody - disagreements, Goblins always remained their mutual enemy, all through the centuries.
"If I had proof I would have gone to our dear Sheriff." a puff on the cigar, "Well, not to him, between you and I, I daresay he'd probably try to excuse the Goblins' behaviour."
Imiwa gave the slightest of nods.
"But I know it was Goblins - and Kobolds too. A Goblin does not change his ways, once a thief, always a thief."
Imiwa twirled a strand of hair between her fingers,
"And what is it you want from me exactly?"
"Do you want your children to grow up with these green and orange thieves running around. They'll start with thievery, and soon move onto murder, wait and see."
"What is it you
want Brosso? You are not telling me anything I don't already know."
"I want us to help each other, Imiwa." he held up a hand to silence for protests, "I know, I know, we haven't - we
don't - see eye to eye on many issues. But with your Elves and my Iron Guard - well, Stronghammer's Iron Guard technically, but all of them except for Zan and that Human Ahra support me in my endeavours - we can flush out these thieves and right the wrongs that infest this community of ours."
"And just why would I do that, tree-killer?"
"Because I can convince Stronghammer to close down the wood-burners. Listen, the Mayor wants to be well-seen by all members of Nomekast. He's already banned cutting down overland trees. I can convince him to take down the wood-burners."
"Why would you do that? You were one of their most vocal advocates."
Truth be told, Brosso couldn't care less about trees and wood-burning. The Elves' sad and pathetic adherence to worshipping lumps of wood was no concern of his. In fact, once he'd got what he wanted, he wouldn't stop the wood-burners being re-opened. Glass was useful and promises made to Elves weren't binding as far as he was concerned. All this he couldn't tell Imiwa, of course.
"Because we are both fighting for the same thing - the protection of our sacred ways and traditions. We should be fighting together, not against each other."
Silence descended on both of them. Then after a few minutes Imiwa held out her hand,
"Ban those wood-burners and I assure you we will fight together until we win." she said softly. Brosso puffed on his cigar and grinned broadly, taking her hand,
"Consider it done." he said.
Shaking hands, both began to plan when to end this alliance of convenience in a position that would leave the other disadvantaged.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AfternoonIt was afternoon when Kadol Nitemavuz, the Dwarf who had been possessed, ended his grand work. As was always the case with these things, everyone crowded round to see.
The first sign of something being wrong was when he held it out and said,
"Yep, all finished."
Usually those who had been struck by 'divine inspiration' were a little more disorientated. Ibruk went straight into his 'interpretation' of the artifact,
"The Gods send us a sign!" he declared, "See how they remind us of their past boons, and at the same time warn us that our lives hang in the balance. The slightest thing - be it Nothing or alligator - can defeat us if we do not remain true to those worthy virtues and piousness that made Nomekast. Pilgrims, we must forever be vigilant and-"
"Is he always like this?" Kadol enquired of the Dwarf next to him. The Dwarf raised an eyebrow,
"Weren't you here for the last artifact, Kadol? You should know how he is."
"Kadol? Oh, oh right. No, I'm Neo. Kadol is...gone."
"What."
"Kadol is gone to the spirit world, to take my place, whereas I'm...stuck in his body."
"S-Stuck?"
"After a certain fashion, yes."
That was when the Dwarf understood just what Kadol - or rather, Neo - meant. His cries and shouts quickly got the attention of everyone, ending Ibruk's speech prematurely. Soon several people were looking to have him tried for necromancy, while others insisted he had been sent back by the Gods or suchlike to help them. It took the combined efforts of Derm, Stronghammer and Ibruk to pacify the more rabid parts of the crowd. Neo by any stretch, was not accepted by the community as a whole, but he was at least accepted by
some of it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NightThey hung hidden outside the entrance. Meinhard's Jagers had found it while searching the fort. The entire operation was cunningly hidden behind not only a fake wall hidden in the rather thin crack in the rock-face, but also with stone traps. The Jagers had been lucky, almost tripping it, but managing to notice it and pull back in time.
Meinhard, his four mutated Jagers and Bounce now waited outside. At a sign, the Jagers moved forwards, avoiding the stone-fall trap and with metal poles levered the rock door off its hinges. The door fell back, landing heavily. In doing so, it triggered a second stone-fall trap which sent a shower of rocks falling down onto the door. The Jagers and Meinhard moved in, weapons ready and eyes open for more traps. Bounce hung behind. She had a dagger with her, but she was no fighter, Meinhard had at first refused to let her come along, but she hadn't taken no for an answer and so was now present as they broke into the 'Thieves' Guild'. She tutted, stepping lightly over the pile of rocks that now covered the fallen stone door. To think, the Thieves' Guild, as people had taken to calling it, had their headquarters right near the militia training grounds.
Though the Jagers had been ready for a fight, they found nothing. The rooms were empty and bare.
"They packed up and left before we got here." Bounce said, her lips thin and neutral. She had hoped to be finally able to close the group that had apparently been at the root of all the missing items from the records. Meinhard nodded,
"Dey must hav packed up ven dey stole de bars." he said in his thick accent. The Dwarven bookkeeper nodded,
"Back to square one." she said, running a hand through her hair with a sigh.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
They had packed up as soon as the heist in the metal stockpiles had been pulled off. The four of them - Stas, Bax, Konith and Atis - each taking part of the various loot they had managed to collect and hiding it down on the Fiery Cistern. Then they took some picks and began to dig. With the three of them (Atis, being a kid, didn't mine) they had soon dug out a rough, new set of quarters for the Thieves' Guild within a week.
The new quarters were well hidden on the Fiery Cistern, it was very unlikely to be found without someone knowing where to look. It still had to have traps added for protection, as well as be emptied of the mined orthoclase, and they had found some galena that they were split on what to do with, giving it to the forges meant losing the silver bars, and possibly raising suspicions, but smelting it themselves wouldn't be easy.
They had a merry evening when they saw Meinhard, Bounce and the Jagers burst proudly into their vacated headquarters. So far, the Thieves' Guild was on top of things, and ironically, were perhaps more efficient than the 'legal' side of Nomekast, even though it was composed of two Dwarves, a Goblin and a Kobold. Crime made all races equal, after all.
Author
Topic: [Community] Nomekast - At War with Nothing (Read 180258 times)